Healthcare Technology Featured Article

If you are a health care provider, your customers entrust you with very sensitive information and in return they expect you to use every tool available at your disposal to protect this information. As organizations migrate to digital formats to collect and store information, they become vulnerable to possible attacks. Companies in the healthcare industry are implementing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, mobile telehealth and other services requiring the application of computing devices and networks.

TMG Health a subsidiary of Health Care Services Corporation (HCSC) is one of the leading expert solution providers for Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, Managed Medicaid plans and BlueCross BlueShield solutions. In choosing Level 3 Communications Inc., TMG is relying on the company’s secure redundant network to provide a reliable tool for communications with its data centers and branches in different parts of the country. With the recent business expansion of a National Operations Center in Jessup, Pennsylvania this new level of protection becomes even more important for TMG.

The Level 3 network will connect the new center in Pennsylvania with other locations in Illinois and Texas as well as supporting the call center operations. All of these facilities house sensitive client information and they all have to be protected no matter how benign they might see to the layman.

"Level 3's network solution makes us an attractive provider for our clients, and enables us to prove to existing and prospective clients that they can entrust us with their sensitive healthcare information. In addition, the fact that Level 3 owns and operates the entire network supporting our headquarters in Jessup -- and protects it with a multi-layered security portfolio -- allows us to reassure our customers that their sensitive data is secure," said Chris Haran, chief information officer of TMG Health.

By owning the network Level 3 doesn’t rely on third party service providers. The ownership gives the company the ability to isolate databases that have been breached and provide a faster response time during interruptions. With a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) /IP VPN service it is able to deliver a fully interconnected service over a dedicated MPLS network that is private and secure.

"We are pleased that our network solutions are helping TMG Health better serve the needs of its clients and expand its core business. We understand the need to secure sensitive healthcare data and believe that our offerings are ideally suited to the unique requirements of the healthcare segment," said Andrew Crouch, Level 3 regional president of North America.

A company such as TMG whose core business is dealing with government related medical services must use a higher level of protection for the data it collects. Although security expert say there is no such thing as total security Level 3 gives TMG the closest option.